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Santa Clara (1-0) travels to Santa Barbara on Tues., Nov. 15 to play the Gauchos (1-0) in the newly refurbished Thunderdome. UCSB was picked as the runner-up in the Big West Conference pre-season and are 41-13 at home in the last four years.
Santa Clara will return home to host cross-town rival San Jose State on Sat., Nov. 19 at 7 pm. Good seats remain.
Santa Clara finished last season 24-14 and won the CIT post-season with All-WCC First Team guard Kevin Foster collecting MVP honors. Foster was named to the 2011 pre-season All-WCC team this season for the third time in his career. UC Santa Barbara is led by two pre-season All-Big West selections in James Nunnally and Orlando Johnson. The 2010-11 UCSB team became the first in program history to advance to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and also the first to win consecutive league crowns.
In the preseason national mid-major poll, UC Santa Barbara was ranked No. 22 and Santa Clara was ranked No. 25. It was the first time in the 13 years of the poll that Santa Clara opened the season ranked in the pre-season. Gonzaga and Butler were ranked 1-2.
The two teams have each won on the opponent's home floor the last two years with Santa Clara winning four of its last five games vs. the Gauchos dating back to 1997. UCSB won 80-69 in the Leavey Center on Dec. 4, 2010 when James Nunnally scored a career-high 34 in the Gaucho win. Santa Clara, 79-68 winners over the Gauchos on the road on Dec. 1, 2009, was led by Foster's 18 points before he broke his foot in the final minutes of the victory at the Thunderdome and had to be redshirted for the season after surgery.
See and Hear
The UC Santa Barbara game will be broadcast via the Bronco Radio Network on both KDOW 1220 AM and Broncos All-Access at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com with the broadcast beginning at 7 pm. Anthony Passarelli is in his fifth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer. Out of the listening area, KDOW is streamed online live at www.1220kdow.com. Fans can follow on video by clicking here.
First Time
With three Bronco players knocking down four threes or more, Santa Clara defeated UC Merced 80-48 in its season opener in the Leavey Center on Fri., Nov. 11. The Broncos moved to 16-1 when scoring 80+ points under fifth-year Bronco head coach Kerry Keating.
The 14 threes made by the Broncos were the most since the Broncos made 15 vs. Gonzaga on March 5, 2001 and tied for the second-best mark in school history (14 vs. Pepperdine, Feb. 14, 2004). It was a Leavey Center record as well, topping the 13 the Broncos made vs. Gonzaga twice (vs. Feb. 24, 2000 and vs. Jan. 6, 2005).
Kevin Foster led the charge with five threes for 17 points and six assists as well. Foster led the country with 140 threes last season. Evan Roquemore and Brandon Clark chipped in four threes each. Clark was a perfect 4 of 4 beyond the arc in his rookie debut.
On the same night, James Nunnally scored 20 points and Orlando Johnson chipped-in 14 as UC Santa Barbara opened its 2011-12 season with a 74-48 win over Chapman University. Nunnally scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half as the Gauchos blew open what had been a 34-22 game at halftime.
Oh Canada!
The Santa Clara men's basketball team travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia Sept. 6-10, 2011 for its foreign tour. During its time in Vancouver, the team played four games vs. Canadian universities and posted a 2-2 record with three overtime games.
In addition, the team also did a lot of sightseeing, hiking up Grouse Mountain and also ziplining at the famous ski resort, broke into mini-teams to compete in the "Amazing Race - Bronco Style", walked across the Capilano Suspension Bridge and ate dinner at Marc Trasolini's family home.
This Year; Home Sweet Home on ESPN
Santa Clara will play at least eight games televised on the ESPN family during the regular season, with five ESPN games during West Coast Conference play. Its ESPN games in the WCC include: at BYU (ESPNU, Jan. 14), vs. Portland (Feb. 2, ESPNU), at USF (Feb. 9, ESPNU), vs. Gonzaga (Feb. 16, ESPN2) and vs. BYU (Feb. 18, ESPNU).
In addition to five league games on ESPNU/ESPN2, Santa Clara will also play in the 76 Classic Nov. 24-25 and 27 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. where its opening-round game vs. New Mexico will be shown on ESPNU on Nov. 24. Santa Clara will play either Oklahoma or Washington State on Fri., Nov. 25 and then its final game in the tournament will be vs. one of the following: Villanova, UC Riverside, Saint Louis or Boston College (ESPNU/2). Each game of the 76 Classic will be shown on the ESPN family throughout the weekend.
Santa Clara will also host the 45th annual Cable Car Classic - the longest-running annual university tournament in the country on Thur., Dec. 29 and Fri, Dec. 30. This year's tournament will feature the Broncos, Eastern Michigan, Air Force and Wagner. Historically, 31 times in its 44 seasons a team from the Cable Car Classic has advanced to the NCAA Tournament later in the season.
Microwave Cooked Hot
In Santa Clara's 88-75 win over Air Force on March 18, 2010, Kevin Foster broke the school record with nine threes, tying a career-high with 36 points. He also had a career-high 36 in Santa Clara's 85-71 win over Gonzaga on Jan. 20, 2011. Foster shattered the WCC single season threes made record with 140 last season and grabbed the country's top spot in threes made per game as well with 3.68.
His 768 points last season are No. 6 on the WCC's single season points scored list as he finished as the leading scorer in a single season in the Bay Area as well. He broke the school's single season mark for points scored, minutes played, threes made and threes attempted. Foster was named first-team All-WCC and was named the WCC Player of the Month for February and March.
Dandy Duo Will Play Again Next Year As Seniors
With senior Marc Trasolini sidelined for the season with a torn ACL suffered on Santa Clara's foreign tour to his hometown in Vancouver, he will return for his red-shirt senior year in 2012-13. Last season Trasolini and Kevin Foster combined for a number of firsts. Foster was the first WCC sophomore ever and the 28th player in school history to score 1,000 career points on Jan. 20. Trasolini was the 29th player to score 1,000 career points on Feb. 26. Foster is currently at No. 14 with 1,378 career points and Trasolini is at No. 24 with 1,096 points. Foster and Trasolini were the first duo to both hit 1,000 career points in the same year since then-seniors Jens Gordon and Mitch Burley did it in 1988-89. Gordon scored 522 points to finish his career with 1,356 and Burley scored 377 to finish with 1,258 career points.
Last season the Foster (766) - Trasolini (472) duo combined for 1,238 points as the No. 1 on SCU Single Season Scoring Duo. They were just the seventh pair to hit 1,000 points in a season. Foster was in the top five already, scoring 486 points his freshman year with WCC Player of the Year John Bryant scoring 596 (No. 4 with 1,082 points).
How Bout Them Apples?
Santa Clara was 24-14 in 2011-12, winning the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in the post-season by winning its final three games on the road (at USF, at SMU, at Iona). The 24 wins were second best in school history with the 1968-69 team winning 27 games.
Santa Clara scored a school record 2,810 points in 2010-11, setting eight school records all told. They made a school record 273 threes and attempted 777. The previous records were 224 in 2003-04 and 662 attempts in 2003-04.
Santa Clara made a school record 719 free throws and attempted 990. The school records were 606 made in 1968-69 and 858 attempted in 1968-69.
Santa Clara had 770 personal fouls. The school record was 695 in 1986-87.
The Broncos broke the school record with 275 steals. The school record was 232 in 2009-10. Other school records included 2,112 field goal attempts (topped 1,974 in 1969-70) and 787 personal fouls (topped 695 from 1986-87).